Rockets 113, Jazz 96: A rout on the way out of a season over too soon

On the road trip, even when the Rockets scored a stunning overtime win in Boston or a strong finish to beat the Grizzlies, it seemed all the Rockets could do to get to the season’s final regular-season game and move on. It had become time to get on with the off-season, draft, summer league and free agency. The season was over, other than the requirement that they play those final, meaningless games.

The Rockets, however, returned home to blow out the Jazz on Wednesday and for the first time in a long time, it felt as if this season was ending too soon.

Instead of beat up and dragging, the Rockets seemed reinvigorated, with Kevin Martin’s return solidifying the offense, Jared Jeffries filling a need off the bench and Luis Scola rolling along the same as always.

Aaron Brooks offered a strong, nationally-televised case for the most improved player award. The Rockets played their roles because now that they have some semblance of health (though Shane Battier is out for the season and David Andersen still has not made it back from his back injury) they actually have and know their roles again.

The defense is still a mess, but the Rockets do seem to have once again found ways to win games.

They also seem likely now to finish with a winning record, something that appeared very challenged, maybe even unlikely, when they headed out on the road trip one game over .500.

That would give them an NBA-high four seasons since the expansion of the playoffs to have winning records and fail to make the post-season.

This was not, of course, an “honor” they wanted, and now that they have a few good wins lately, it felt as if the season was actually ending too soon, rather than dragging on to nowhere.

There was, however, another way to look at it.

“You never want it to be over, but we have something to build on,” Kevin Martin said. “We all know that around here.”

Finally, once again, they looked it. Finish strong, and they can feel it.

“We are setting ourselves up for next year and guys are getting valuable minutes and hopefully when we add Yao (Ming) it’s just going to make us a stronger team,” Aaron Brooks said. “I think the good thing is Jordan Hill is playing good. Chase (Budinger) is playing good. We got a chance to see what Jared (Jeffries) can do. We’ve got a lot of pieces and right now we’re playing pretty good basketball and we are going to try to keep it up.”

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Rick Adelman and Daryl Morey would love what Kevin Martin had to say about next season.

After the Rockets scored 113 points for a second-consecutive night, Martin talked about defense.

“Even next year, everything looks good on paper,” Martin said. “It’s about determination on both ends of the court. For myself, I have to work hard on scoring because I know how teams play me. I have to take that down on the other end and try to make them work as tough. That’s what I tried to do lately. Hopefully, it starts with me and Aaron (Brooks) in the backcourt and carries over.”

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Weird stat of the night: By beating the Jazz, 113-96, the Rockets won by the exact same score as in their win in Salt Lake City in the fourth game of the season.

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The Jazz did look like a team whipped by the schedule. They were playing a back-to-back after Tuesday’s overtime win in Utah and got to the hotel in Houston a little after 4 a.m. in the latest evidence that the NBA schedule-maker cannot find Salt Lake City on a map.

The Rockets, however, were also playing a back-to-back for their fifth game in eight days, and had just finished a four-game road trip on Tuesday. The Jazz had three days off before starting their back-to-back with the overtime win against the Thunder.

All that said, there is no reason that the majority of games with the Rockets and Jazz have at least one of the teams playing the second-half of a back-to-back. The Rockets do not play as many back-to-backs against anyone else as against the team the NBA apparently believes is located somewhere outside of Denton.

Sure, it evens out. And in the old days of commercial flights, the schedule was tougher. But teams should be at the best as often as possible. Customers deserve that.

Shorten the preseason, spread the 82 games out over two extra weeks and let more teams play on Thursday’s. The schedule should determine when and where teams play, not how.